Safeway Moving Systems

Out of 20 years of military service and 8 different household goods shipments to include overseas moves, this has been by far the worst experience I have ever had.

I should have suspected something when I first started communicating with them. They were the cheapest and were promising everything to get my business. If you have ever dealt with a timeshare salesman, this is what they felt like.

Up to the point of pickup they seemed trustworthy and concerning for me as a customer. Once they had my items in their possession it just went downhill from there. Everything from lies, deception, ignoring calls, emails, accusations and threats. Once they have your items, they have the power to do whatever they want or else you don't get your items in return. "It's in the contract" as I was reminded several times. When you read the contract, it is completely so they are not held liable. They failed to meet pick up and delivery dates and then charged me for them being late on delivery. The movers that they used, M.A.D, failed to properly pack items, failed to perform a proper inventory, lost and damaged items, and added on to the lies and deception. Now that I have read some of the recent BBB complaints, I can fully relate on how they were treated. Don't fall for them like I did to include all of these fake reviews on here and Google.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7073

This company is the pits, I wish I’d done more research because they are not transparent but then act like their service is stellar. I should have known it would be bad when they assured me repeatedly that they’d give me 48 hours notice for the pickup, of which they give you a 3-day window, only to call me at 3:30 pm Saturday - literally the DAY BEFORE picking up my stuff. So they didn’t even give me 24-hour notice. Then, you’ll see that they rushed the pickup only to let my stuff sit in San Francisco for 4 weeks!

They contract the people who actually come and pick up your stuff. Those guys were fine for the pickup in San Francisco. But I’m honestly terrified after reading these reviews of what it’s going to be like for my delivery. Which btw is another awful part of their customer service (or lack thereof). You talk to a person at Safeway who goes over your list of items and briefly covers the process. They ask you a question about when the earliest day is that you could receive your delivery. But they fail to explain that whatever date you give them is actually 21 days AFTER when they will be delivering your stuff.

Ok so they picked my stuff up on 1/24 and I told them I’d be in my house by the 31st thinking there’s no rush and since I’m moving across the country, I’ll give it cushion. Wrong, that only has delayed the delivery even more! So here we are and now it’s February 19th. I call to find out when my stuff will be here and it’s been FOUR WEEKS since they picked it up. My stuff hasn’t even left San Francisco! I’ve been in Virginia for 4 weeks without my belongings. Their customer service agent told me today that they have until 21 days from the time you say your earliest available time to receive your delivery is to even SCHEDULE THE DELIVERY! Can you believe this pile of turd BS?

So on Monday I’m supposed to find out when I’ll get my stuff I guess? I don’t trust a word that comes out if these people’s mouths. And if they EVEN try to pull some stuff with me about living on a country road and needing to change trucks I will lose my mind on them. I will update my review following the delivery.

At this point I’m not sure how my opinion could be changed and what’s even worse is I recommended them to my manager who is also moving across the country and had issues with their quote being off by a large amount. Mine also ended up being about $2k over the initial quote. Lesson learned: sell your stuff, just get rid of it - you’ll be hating everything you own and thought you couldn’t live without if your move goes like this one and if you only need keepsakes and heirlooms I still say find something solid - doubt it’s this company.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6500

I dealt with Steve for my quote. It started off nice; cordial-like. After I had qualms over the price, it quickly turned into someone telling me to have a "bon-fire" with my meager belongings. Then I had the added luxury to hear him brag about his personal and business portfolio. SIT DOWN! Be humble... HE can take it away, just as quick.

To my middle class peeps... skip this guy! He clearly pointed out that he don't need "us". I want to be rich enough to not need the business of the "peasants" one day too. Hope this review goes "VIRAL" and this guy loses business.

To new Best Bud, Steve :)

Shalom

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $3500

I spoke with Joe and received an estimate to move my items, it was a very small load and he quoted me at $3099.25 for 256 cf. I gave him a very detailed list of items, a couple of things I actually ended up not moving. Total was $3099.25. The driver says I have way more cubic feet than quoted. I had elected a "not to exceed cost" price, I have my quote and I have my list from the movers that came to pick up the stuff and it matches 100%. However, the movers gave me a new total of $4347.25. That is a huge difference of $1248. Again, I immediately addressed this discrepancy with Joe, and he said he had no idea how that happened and would pass it on to operations. Which of course no one ever contacted me about. I had no choice but to pay that difference when the movers are in my house as I had to get on the road to my destination.

I would be ready to receive my items by 1/4/2021. I was told my belongings would be delivered within 10-21 days and that I would get a call when they were 48 hours out to give me a window for delivery. I called around the 3rd week of January to try and get an update. I was told I would get a call back and that technically they had until 2/4 which is 30 days because they don’t count weekends, etc.. If this was true, it would be here no later than 2/4. 2.4 I call and talk to Julian and he said it is still in Oregon. This means for 30 days it has been sitting in storage.

The company never let me know that there was a delay or anything. Julian let me know that he had been told by dispatch that they would be loading it in the next 2-3 days and he would call me Monday with an update. Monday came and went, no call from Julian. Tuesday, I called in and talked to a lady in customer service. She told me she would have to look into it and call me back. I got a call a little bit later from dispatch and he informed me my stuff had left and would be delivered in 5-7 days, that i would get a call when they were 24 hours out. 7 days comes and goes with no call. I call dispatch and they said it would be Thursday (9 days) and that i would get a call when they were 24 hours out with a delivery window. Dispatch also told me a story about a 53-foot tractor-trailer not being able to fit on our street. Which meant they had to go get a smaller truck, again at a significant additional cost of $350.00. This is not true as I have seen big trucks down here making deliveries, I have a picture of one from that day actually if you need it. I was told that this had to be paid for in cash, making me concerned that this was a scam. The cash had to be presented before they would deliver my furnishings or even open the truck to confirm they were in fact, mine. This is very unnerving to say the least to hand someone a ton of cash, without even seeing if the truck had my stuff in it, all of it, or damaged etc.. Anyway, Thursday came and went, I asked again for an update and now was told Friday or Saturday. Friday nothing happened, so I sent a message asking for an update again. I was told between 5-8pm Saturday (2/20) for delivery. Around 7:30pm or so I get a message that they are running behind and now would be between 8:30-9:30pm. The drivers call at 8:54pm and say they are 10 minutes out, about 40 minutes later they arrived. That part was pretty smooth, decent guys unloading, and they were quick. He also looked at said I probably had about 300cf, if so than what did the people loading charge me extra for??? It looked as everything was unloaded and it all looked ok, and they left about 10:30pm. Due to the super late time when they delivered everything, I did not want them to assemble the bed frame which is part of what I paid for also, taking the bed apart and putting it back together at the destination.

Because of this I did not notice until the next morning that what I saw was bed slats brought in was the only part of my daughter's bed they delivered. The entire frame is missing. I called Monday and asked to file a claim for the frame and everything else for $, and was told I would have it by end of the day. Which of course I did not. I called again yesterday and asked for a form, and again was told by end of day I would have it - I did not. I have now sent an email, and no for or response.

I have calculated that I am due a refund of the difference in what I paid compared to my estimate, plus the cost of the bed frame, plus the 30.00 a day for each day they were late, considering it took you 53 days to make the move I made in 6. That total is $2218.00

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4697

I did research before choosing this company. They were rated as having “most accurate pricing”. This was true, I paid what I was quoted. However, when your stuff arrives smashed, broken, with kerosene (yes! Kerosene!!) spilled all over it and mice have chewed through boxes and pooped everywhere, that price is no longer accurate. And there claim system is 60 cents per pound per item. Choosing this option is the only way you get their “accurate quote” pricing (which is never explained, by the way). They shattered my flat screen tv that they ( the professionals??) packed themselves! Both of our office desks were cracked and corners broken off (again THEY packed those as well!) Kerosene was spilled all over our items, I have the saturated boxes to prove it. And why was there kerosene around our stuff?? I didn’t even go into the misleading delivery times they quoted. Bottom line, if you have nice things you don’t want to have to replace on your own DO NOT go with Safeway Moving System, you’ll end up paying more in the long run.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6821

Getting a quote and contract in place with Safeway Moving system for my move from TX to NY was smooth but after they picked up our stuff it was a total nightmare that I am still dealing with. I had multiple stops for delivery in NY within 20 miles, one of them being Manhattan.

2 weeks after the pick-up, multiple agents, drivers and dispatch contacted me on the same day within hours of each other, including Safeway, with different delivery dates and times. It took almost a day to get clarity on the final (or so I thought was final) delivery date and time as none of them knew what was going on. I was already nervous at this point. To start with it was barely a 24 hour notice of the delivery date & time. It was close to 8pm the day before when I got the last call about the delivery. I was told my stuff would arrive at the first location between 11am and 1pm. I had repeatedly reminded every single person I talked to well before and after my items were picked up about the time restrictions at the 2nd location and each time the agents reassured me that wouldn't be a problem as they have done plenty of delivers in Manhattan and are aware of these types of restrictions. The next day (delivery day), I got a call from the actual driver around 12:40pm with ETA at 1st location of 4:30pm. I explained to him that is not the window I was given and that we won't be allowed at the 2nd location for delivery past 5pm. The driver was honest and said he had no idea about the time restrictions and that he would’ve planned for my delivery first that day had he known. I called the agent who called at 8pm the day before and said this is what is happening, he said he will talk to the driver and call me back. Neither the driver nor the agent called me back. I called them both back and no response. I then called every single number that had contacted me the day before, including safeway, and no one picked up. Finally the driver called back 2 hours later and said he now won't make it till 6pm due to traffic. This was not ideal but I said ok let me see if I can make this work. I made arrangements with the Manhattan location to allow us to unload my stuff until 7pm and luckily they agreed. Around 5:00pm I called the driver again and no response. I left a message and asked to go to Manhattan first as we had only till 7pm to move-in. I asked for an ETA which again took some time to get a response back and he responded saying he was still 1.5 hours away. This clearly would’ve been past the 7pm limit. I asked to speak to the manager and the manager started off yelling and continued to be completely rude necessarily and basically said I can take the delivery today at whatever time they get there or forget about getting my stuff. I was literally shaking from that phone call and told the driver to deliver the stuff at the 1st location in the fear of not getting my stuff back at all. They finally arrived at the 1st location at 7:30pm . I had to hire a second moving company to move my stuff to Manhattan. I kept contacting safeway (it was a Friday) and got no response. I called again on Monday (left a vm) and again no response. On Tuesday I called again and finally got a hold of an agent, explained the situation and he simply offered an apology and blamed me for choosing a cheap company to move (which I don't know who thinks 6K is anywhere near cheap). This wasn't the end of it all, when I opened the boxes rats had eaten up bunch of my stuff and every box had rat poo all over. So DISGUSTING! Don't hire this company, they are unprofessional, their movers are totally rude and none of them take any responsibility of their actions or lack of.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6000